restorative justice

• INTRO

  • restorative justice aims to provide a victim of a crime with a voice and display the emotional consequences of the crime to the offender
  • it seeks positive outcomes and involves mediated conversations between the offender and victim. this way offender can feel remorse for their actions, and apologise for their actions and may help repair any damage/ pay for any losses - advice is given by restorative justice council
  • this allows offender to comprehend and fathom the results of their actions, and once they understand this they can be reintegrated into society again
• A03

  -RJ schemes may take a naïve approach to dealing with offending behaviour because they assume that the offender and survivor will always show remorse when participating. This may not always be the case, especially considering that the offender may receive a shorter prison sentence or more rewards for participating in the scheme, whilst survivors may want revenge on their criminal, in the form of physical or verbal abuse. Therefore, although RJ is useful in theory, it may be less so in real life.
• A03

  +beneficial for victim - research has shown that victims who take part in rj, usually notice a significant improvement in mental health as they are able to voice emotions and display the physical and mental effect that an offence may have had on them. this therefore means it is beneficial for both offender and victim, and may also have positive implications on the economy as less money will have to be spent on mental health treatments for offenders as it acts as a way of venting anger or betrayal that encourages criminals to stop committing crimes
• A03

  — RJ has also been critisised by feminists, particularly when used in cases of domestic abuse or violence. This is because RJ does not place the offender and victim on an equal power balance, as the victim will seem accusatory of the offender. Therefore, in cases where there is such a power imbalance as in domestic abuse cases, RJ schemes can fail to adequately place the blame upon the offender, as well as being traumatic and distressing for the survivor. This means that RJ cannot be used as a way of dealing with offending behaviour for all crimes, and so has limited utility.